1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to a hybrid vehicle configured to transmit power, which is output from an engine or a motor or both, to a drive shaft via a gear transmission mechanism, such as a planetary gear mechanism.
2. Description of Related Art
International Application Publication No. 2013/094043 describes an invention that relates to a hybrid vehicle. In the hybrid vehicle that uses a first motor, a second motor and an engine as driving force sources, the hybrid vehicle includes a planetary gear mechanism and a lock mechanism. The planetary gear mechanism transmits power, which is output from the first motor or the engine or both, to a drive wheel side. The lock mechanism stops the rotation of one rotating element (specifically, a rotating element to which an output shaft of the engine is coupled) of the planetary gear mechanism. The hybrid vehicle described in the International Application Publication No. 2013/094043 intends to suppress a decrease in the durability of the above-described planetary gear mechanism. For this purpose, the hybrid vehicle described in the International Application Publication No. 2013/094043 is configured to, in a state where the rotation speed of each of the pinion gears that are component elements of the planetary gear mechanism increases as a result of activating the lock mechanism, reduce a driving torque shared by the first motor within a required driving torque as the rotation speed of each pinion gear increases.
As described above, in the hybrid vehicle described in the International Application Publication No. 2013/094043, the output of the first motor is limited in consideration of the rotation speed of each pinion gear in order to protect the pinion gears of the planetary gear mechanism. Therefore, even when the rotation of one rotating element of the planetary gear mechanism is stopped and then the rotation speed of each pinion gear of the planetary gear mechanism increases, an excessive increase in the rotation speed of each pinion gear is suppressed by limiting the output of the first motor. Therefore, an excessive increase in the rotation speed of each pinion gear is avoided, so it is possible to suppress a decrease in the durability of the planetary gear mechanism due to abrasion of the pinion gears.